In most cases, discarding the water that has been sitting in your pipes and using cold water for drinking and cooking should keep lead levels low in your drinking water. Longer flushing times and, in some cases, water filters are temporarily necessary following plumbing work affecting lead or galvanized pipes.
If you are concerned about lead in your water, you may wish to have your water tested. Lincoln Water System offers one free lead test kit per year per address. To request your free lead test kit, please call Lincoln Water System at 402‐441‐7571 option 2.
The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services Public Health Environmental Lab will test your water sample for lead for a fee. They also maintain a list of certified labs in Nebraska that can also test your water.
DHHS Public Health Environmental Lab
Like any contaminant, amount matters. The more lead that is in the water, the more hazardous it is to your health. Even so, lead can have negative health effects even at very low concentrations. No safe level of lead has been identified.
What your sample’s lead result means for you and your family will depend on several factors, including:
A safe level of lead in drinking water has not yet been determined. Because lead can cause health effects at low levels in a human body, lead exposure should be reduced as much as possible. The greatest risk of lead exposure is to infants, young children, and people who are pregnant.
It is helpful to remember that when sampled in accordance with instructions, your sample results are the amounts of lead found in water that had been sitting stagnant in your plumbing unused for several hours. Running the water for a few minutes to bring in fresh water from the city’s water main pipe usually reduces the amount of lead in water. However, if you have galvanized iron pipes, it is possible for the amount of lead in your water to fluctuate even after flushing. This is because lead can get into water whenever pieces of the iron pipe’s corrosion scale break loose inside your galvanized pipes.
Related: Annual Drinking Water Quality Report
Next Lincoln Water System Sampling
The USEPA has set an Action Level for lead in drinking water at 15 parts per billion (ppb). The lead action level is a measure of how drinking water interacts with lead containing plumbing materials. Different water chemistry can cause lead to dissolve more readily than others. A more corrosive water can result in higher lead levels at the customer’s tap.
To check if a water system has water that may cause leaching of lead materials the USEPA requires water systems to test for lead in a certain number of homes that have lead plumbing. If 90 percent of the water samples from these homes have lead concentrations less than the action level, then the water system’s corrosion control is sufficient.
Lincoln Water System is required to sample a minimum of 50 homes every 3 years for lead and copper. These results have always been below the USEPA’s Action Level for lead and copper. The chart below shows the 90th percentile concentration of lead in “first draw” Lead and Copper Rule water samples. These samples are taken from homes with lead in their private plumbing.
It is important to note two things about the Lead and Copper Rule:
The most recent Lead and Copper results can also be found in the Lincoln Water System’s Annual Water Quality Report.
Previous Testing Your Water for Lead
If you have questions about testing for lead or would like to discuss your lead test result contact Lincoln Water System at 402‐441‐7571 option 2.
For more information on reducing lead exposure around your home/building and the health effects of lead visit epa.gov/lead or contact your health care provider.
If you have any questions regarding health issues related to lead contact the Lincoln Lancaster County Health Department at 402‐441‐8040. Public health nurses will help you and can refer you to useful medical resources.
More Information